Operation: Get Natsu and Lucy Together
by Sweet Little Demon
Summary: Everyone is tired of Natsu and Lucy ignoring their obvious attraction towards one another. So, one late evening in the Guild, decide to devise a list of 26 plans. A plan for each letter from A to Z. Sorry I suck at Summaries, but this is a word prompt of 26 oneshots that all connect together. Pure Nalu and tons of Fluff. Ratings may vary depending on the ideas I get from the words
1. Chapter 1

**Yes, I know. "ooooh sweet little demon, you need to get to work on Exceedingly Adorable and don't have time for another story" but ya know what? I'm hit with inspiration once again! And this time, it's a prompt type thing, but with a story line. I'll explain more at the end of the chapter.**

Prologue

It was later in the evening in the beautiful town of Magnolia, the night stars just beginning to make their grand appearance in the darkening sky. Inside of Fairy Tail, there were a few members remaining into the evening, while the rest had returned to their homes for the night. The main room was dimly lit by a few of the lanterns that hung on the walls and ceiling, allowing enough to be able to see. The beautiful, white haired Mirajane stood behind the counter of the bar, smiling to herself as she cleaned the insides of a beer mug. The only remaining members were the scarlet haired exquip mage, the bookworm blunette, the cold hearted ice mage, the pink haired pyro, his blue cat, the blonde gatekeeper, the barrel hugging psychic, the short white haired takeover mage, the young blue haired sky goddess and her loyal white exceed.

They were situated around room, sipping their drinks and chatting idly while Natsu and Lucy were standing towards the doors of the Guild.

"Natsu, can't you just go to your own house tonight? I was hoping for some privacy and time to right my novel." Lucy whined to her best friend, shifting her jacket sleeves down her arms a bit.

"It's not like I'm gonna stop ya. Besides, I don't have any food." He explained with a nonchalant expression, his mind dead set on following his blonde partner back to her warm and cozy apartment.

Lucy really didn't have the energy to spend fighting with her partner about something as insignificant as this—plus, she knew that if she sent him home now, he'd only show up later that night and wake her up with his always loud enterances.

"Fine, but you're staying on the couch. Don't even think about sneaking into my bed again!" she exclaimed, stabbing her finger into his chest with a light blush coating over her bubbly cheeks.

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu said with a roll of his obsidian orbs before promptly dragging her out of the Guild, calling his farewells to their friends before the door shut. Mostly everyone had stopped what they were doing to eavesdrop on the two, all except Mira who continued to scrub the beer mug thoroughly with the slowly growing smile.

"Are those two _ever _apart?" Lisanna asked with a small giggle that was muffled by her hand.

"I seemed like that before the games, but it's even worse now." Gray scoffed, tossing his cards onto the table in defeat, knowing there was no way to win against Cana _and _Erza.

"It's true. They were rarely apart before we entered the games, but as of late, it seems as if they are never separated." Erza nodded, also laying her cards down on the table in a silent defeat

"Aye. Natsu and I haven't stayed in our place in months." Happy added, choosing to stay behind in the Guild instead of following his partners thanks to Mira offering him a large pile of fish.

"So you two have practically moved in with Lu-chan?" Levy asked, moving from her quiet reading corner to join Lisanna at the bar.

"Aye! Natsu's actually thinking of either convincing Lucy to come move in with us or just selling the place." Happy cheered, happily suckling on his treat.

"That's so cute!" Mira chimed in with an overjoyed smile—the conversation finally going in the direction she had hopes it would that night. She had held back these few members for a specific reason of her own…

"I'm not sure that Lucy-san would agree to either of those." Wendy added her own piece with a small smile and blush.

"Yeah, the kid's always goin' on 'bout virtue and 'not being fit for marriage' or somethin' like that every time she complains 'bout Natsu sleepin' with 'er." Cana said from her new place on top of the bar, her ever faithful barrel of alcohol wrap possessively in her limbs.

"I personally think that there should be a line drawn between how close they are, I've heard that Natsu has used her bath." Carla crossed her small arms over her chest, huffing indignantly.

"Perhaps if they were just friends, but they are so obviously much more than that!" Mira defended quickly. "Can't you just feel the attraction between them?! It's so cute!" she squealed.

"More like frustrating. Can't they just fess up and get together already?" Gray grumbled, also joining all the others that have seemed to have gravitated around the bar. No one felt the need to point out that he was yet again shirtless, knowing he'd just return to his undressed state minutes after he put the article of clothing back on.

Everyone seemed to have missed the dangerous glint that had sparked through the cover model's beautiful blue eyes at his words. Yes, this is exactly how she had hoped the conversation would have gone.

"I agree. The two of them have been beating around the bush for too long." Erza complied, her brow furrowing slightly in thought.

"Exactly my thoughts. If we just leave them getting together to them, they'll _never _become a couple! So I say we … help guide them in the right direction." Mira said with an innocent smile, setting the now clean mug in its cabinet and picking up the next one.

"What do you suggest, nee-san?" Lisanna asked, leaning against the counter with a grin—her thought pattern scarily similar to her elder sister.

Mira tapped her chin thoughtfully, fooling absolutely no one with her innocent act. Everyone in the guild knew that Mira was a devious matchmaker, having successfully gotten together several couples. Alzack and Bisca had been the easiest, since the two of them had already been in love and had just need the smallest nudge in the right direction—meaning she 'accidentally' shoved the two of them in the supply closet and managed to 'lose' the _only _key. Even in her younger rebellious teen years she had helped aid Macao gain the affections of Romeo's mother. Of course, then she had been a little less subtle with her hints and had literally shoved the two of them together and told them to 'get it on' already.

"I would say we should make a plan!" she said brightly after a few seconds of thoughtful chin tapping.

"Knowing those two, they'd totally miss the point of it." Gray said, sipping at his beer bottle with a grumble.

"Well how about several? We could make a large list of plans that, if one doesn't work, we have backups." Mira offered, leaning against the counter after having finished wiping down the last of the mugs.

"We'd have to go through the entire alphabet—possibly with other languages too—to have enough back up plans." Levy joked with a giggle.

"If 26 plans aren't enough, I'm pretty sure we'll have to smash their faces together until they're permanently stuck that way." Cana said with an evil smile, sobering up almost too quickly after having chugged nearly half of the barrel.

"Let's do it then, we'll have a plan for each letter." Levy said with a sweet, yet mischievous, smile.

"I'm not sure if Lucy-san and Natsu-san will be very happy if they find out." Wendy muttered, knowing for a fact that Lucy would most likely pass out from the severe blood rush to her head, and Natsu would probably just end up being more confused than embarrassed and would end up saying Gray was trying to challenge his intelligence or something.

"The point is that they won't find out. We have some of the best and most creative strategists just at this bar, I'm sure we'll be able to make it so they can't track it back to us." Mira said with a smile in Gray and Erza's direction.

"Not that the two of them would actually be able to tell that they were being set up in the first place." Cana muttered before taking another big swig from her barrel.

"Then it's settled, let's start. So, for plan A …"

**It's a prologue, it's supposed to be short.**

**So in other words, I want you guys to send me one word Prompts for a letter of the alphabet that I can write a plan and short story about. I already have a few thought out for a few of the letters, but there are some that I could really use help on. Obviously I'm not gonna get through the entire alphabet, I'll probably have to stop before I get to x or q, cause seriously, there are like no words that start with those letters.**

**So! Send me prompts for the letters, and depending on how many of the same word I get, or which one sparks inspiration the most with me, I will use!**


	2. Plan A

**Wow, you guys, really. I go to sleep, wake up and see I have 45 emails – I love all of you~! Thank you to all of those that offered some ideas the one anon who went through all the letters and gave me a word :) we even had a few of the same ideas. So, without further ado, here is chapter 1.**

Chapter 1: Plan A – Admirer **(Prompt by anon)**

When the doorbell at Lucy's apartment rang for the six time in the past three days, she peeked the door open with a suspicious hum. Her eyes immediately went to her feet and found, yet again, another gift. They had been appearing for three days randomly, no return address or even a name, just a cliché "From your secret admirer" card.

She had at first thought it was just some sort of prank from the Guild, but when they just kept coming and actually had some … really nice and sweet things in them, she instantly diminished that thought.

Opening the door wide enough for her to slip her head through, she quickly surveyed the hallways in hope of catching the culprit, only to find it as deserted as it usually was—her being one of the only residents in the apartment complex. She grabbed the thickly wrapped basket by its handle and hefted it into her apartment, shutting the door with her foot before waddling over to her kitchen table and setting the gift on top.

So, what was it this time?

She searched for the ending of the large piece of plastic that was wrapped around the basket, but came up empty after several minutes of searching. With an annoyed huff, she brought out her cancer key, considering calling him to slice it up for her, but thought otherwise. Why waste energy when she can just use the key itself.

She apologized mentally to Cancer for using his key in such a way—making a reminder to go and buy a new pair of scissors after Gajeel had eaten them when Levy had last visited—and stabbed the pointed tool into the plastic, yanking down. A fairly large slit was made in the layers and layers of plastic, enough that she was sure she could manage the rest on her own. After shining the key on her shirt, she tucked it back onto the key ring and back into its pouch.

Though it definitely had some resistance, she still managed to yank the rest of it off and toss it into the garbage bin next to her fridge. Yep, this was definitely done by a man. Eyeing the plastic bundle in the garbage, she noticed that there were small charred marks around it, just like the previous presents.

Her first thought, naturally, when she saw the burn marks, that it was Natsu who was sending her these things. But she, yet again, dismissed the idea. First off, Natsu knew how to control his power better than to let a few little burst of flames out. And if it was because he was getting frustrated with the wrapping, he would have just 'Fire iron fist'ed the thing until the only thing that remained was the metal hinges that kept the basket stitched together on its sides. Not to mention it had some really girly things in it, stuff that only a true romantic would know a girl would like.

The basket held items similar to her previous presents—chocolates, bath salts, roses, one small bottle of expensive perfume, a new novel, a fresh feather pen, and of course the small little slip of paper that she knew she'd find stuffed between the stems of the bouquet. With a sigh, she grabbed the paper between two fingers and tugged it from between the white rose and the red rose, pulling it up to her nose. And, just as she thought, the card smelt like cinnamon and chocolate, exactly like the other cards. While at first, she had been relatively flattered, she was now getting … bored with the gifts. She already had more flowers than she knew what to do with, the chocolate that had been piling up in her fridge would only had more weight to her—which she wasn't in the mood to hear Happy comment about—the perfume was nice, but the portion was just so small and the fragrance wasn't really all that strong nor sweet smelling. But the bath salts, the novel and the pen were appreciated … then again, the novel wasn't really that interesting looking, it looked plain and dull—especially when she skimmed through the first couple pages. She preferred fiction or something she could gain useful knowledge from, this was just a book on wood repair and construction ….

Yep, definitely a man.

With another sigh, she emptied the basket—putting the presents in their respective places around the apartment, and dropped the basket beside her fridge. She'd reuse it later on when she goes grocery shopping. It was big enough that Wendy could probably roll up and lay down in it, and maybe even Carla and Happy would manage to squeeze in there with her. It's better than using those horrible plastic bags the store _insisted _were eco friendly—but Lucy knew high quality _anything _when she saw it, and those plastic bags were fresh from the pollution inducing factories they were made from.

She returned to her desk, twiddling her brand new pen around her fingers in thought before setting it inside the ink bottle and closing her notebook.

She was really curious who it was that kept sending her the gifts—only so she could turn them down face to face and tell them that she wasn't really interested. She considered asking Natsu to sniff the gifts and help her track down the admirer, but decided against it. Those gifts were all overwhelmingly doused in perfumes, strong enough that you couldn't smell anything _but _the perfume. Even the roses that came with everything didn't have their natural scent anymore.

Sure, Natsu _might _be able to pick up on the smell of the admirer, but if anything, he'd first notice the lingering smell of the chocolates and demand to know where she was hiding them. Her love life was the farthest thing from his mind … actually, just love in general. She was seriously becoming concerned if Natsu knew any kind of love other than that of Nakama-ship.

And for some reason, that set a really heavy rock in her stomach.

She couldn't really explain what it was, but ever since they returned from the games, she hasn't had an interest in … any male. She barely shares them a glance, unless out of curiosity for their magic or back story. And she couldn't explain why. Ever since they returned to Magnolia, she had been confronted with date offers on more than one occasion, yet she always turns them down with an apologetic smile and an offer of being friends.

She couldn't explain it … she just wasn't interested in any of the guys that approached her, even if they seemed like they were her type.

Unless, you know, you count whenever Natsu suddenly appears out of nowhere and her heart picks up to a dangerous rate.

"Yo Lucy!"

Like right now.

Lucy jumped in surprise, knowing that if she had been sitting she would have fallen off of her chair. She spun around to face her window where her pink haired partner was entering, her heart still pounding at an alarming speed thanks to his surprise exclamation … and because he was walking towards her with his usually zipped up jacket currently _unzipped. _There was one thing that Lucy couldn't deny, that Natsu's body was impressive. She actually sort of missed his little vest he used to wear, allowing her to view his washboard abs at all times, but now he wore that once sleeved jacket that—despite not as revealing—still looked incredible on him.

"Natsu! What did I tell you about sneaking up on me?!" She scolded, slapping halfheartedly at his—toned, muscular, tanned and _ohmygawdineedtostopthinkingaboutthis_—chest.

"You didn't show up at the Guild, everyone's been wondering where you were." He said with a shrug before leaning forward with an accusing stare, invading her personal face space. "I thought you said that you'd come before noon."

"I lost track of time, and who are you to talk about being late? You've never been on time when we set a time for a mission." She said sternly, forgetting about her need for personal space and pressing closer until their noses almost touched. That is, until Natsu's nose started flaring and he reeled back with a look of disgust on his face.

"What's that smell?! Did a shelf of that smelly bottle water stuff fall on you or somethin'?" he asked, pinching his nose between his fingers while eying her with concern.

"No, no, nothing like that. I just got a present in the mail and it was a little … strongly scented, that's all. It must have rubbed off on me while I was carrying it in." she said, trying to not look offended by his comment.

"Did _they _dump a shelf of that smelly bottle water stuff on it?" he asked with a scrunched up face.

"Natsu, it's called perfume, and it's made to smell good. And … actually, they might have." She said, with a thoughtful furrow of her brow.

"Whatever, I told everyone I'd come and get you. Let's go." He said, walking over to her and grabbing her wrist to drag her out the window.

"Natsu! Stop! J-just use the door! I can't survive a drop like that, you dumbass!"

^V^V^V^V^V^

"He drags me over here only to ditch me the moment we step inside to go and fight. Geez, that idiot." Lucy mumbled to herself, leaning against the counter and tossing a piece of chocolate into her mouth. She had manage to stall Natsu's plan of dragging her out of the window by saying that she had some chocolate she wanted to grab—which she did—and then bolted for the door before he could get his hands on her again.

"Hello, Lucy!" Mira said cheerfully, coming to join the blonde on her end of the bar. "Why the long face?"

"Oh, it's nothing. It's just that Natsu dragged me out of my house to come here only to abandon me the moment we get here." She mumbled again, turning her head to look at the brawling men in the middle of the room. She missed the glint that had shined through Mira's eye when she noticed the case of chocolate sitting beside the girl's arm.

"Ohhh, where'd you get this brand of chocolate? I didn't think that they sold this kind anywhere near Magnolia." Mira asked with feigned excitement, picking up the box to examine it.

"I didn't buy it, they've just been showing up at my apartment for the past couple days."

"Wrong address maybe?"

"… maybe, but I've been getting them, along with a ton of other presents from 'My secret admirer'." She stated, using air quotes and an eye roll to emphasize her thoughts on how ridiculous it was.

"Oh, how to romantic! Do you have any idea who it might be?" Mira asked, leaning against the counter and leaning towards the girl. Lucy thought nothing of Mira's behavior, knowing that the woman absolutely loved this kind of topic.

"Nah, not really. At first I thought maybe it was a prank from the Guild or something, but there were actually some really nice things in there that most of the guy members wouldn't even know were used for." Lucy said with disinterest, but a small blush coated across her cheeks as she remembered who her next assumption had been, pondering over whether she should tell Mira or not. "Then … I thought maybe Natsu, cause there were burn marks on all of them." Lucy summed up, noticing the sparkle in Mira's eyes gleam brighter than any of the stars she had seen. "But, it couldn't be him. First, he knows to control his powers better, and second, if he didn't even know what perfume was called, I don't think he'd know that it's a gift to give to a girl." Lucy giggled.

"Well, you never know, Natsu could have asked for advice. You know everyone thinks that you two would be the perfect couple." The barmaid said with a smile, cupping the side of her mouth with her hand as if to make sure that no one else could hear her. Lucy's blush intensified, but the information wasn't a shocker. She knows that everyone teases her about their accidental moments—reminding her that she still had to get back at Happy for spilling to Cana about her little nudity incident when the dragons were attacking. "I'm sure that'd anyone here would be more than happy to give him a little help."

"But what about the burn marks? It's like I said, Natsu has better control over his powers than to let them out of control like that." Lucy reasoned, not at all persuaded in Mira's apparent determination to convince it was Natsu.

"Maybe he did it on purpose, like to give you a hint that it's him or something. Has he been acting any different around you lately?" Mira asked, hiding the slight desperation that had started to lift in her voice. She knew she shouldn't have set her hopes to high, considering it _was _just plan A.

Lucy thought it over, considering it deeply. She liked the idea, thinking it was kind of cute, but again, it was a little detail, something that Natsu wouldn't have thought of. He was either _go big _or _not at all. _The fact that he floated a tree down a river just for her to see was proof enough that he didn't really understand the meaning 'subtle'. But then again, maybe Mira had a point. The others in the Guild could have been giving him ideas and advice on it. But if they wanted the two of them together so badly, wouldn't they just say for him to run up and kiss her or something?

Of course the idea made her blush even deeper, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"It's a possibility, Mira, but I'm not really convinced. The last time you tried to convince me Natsu had feelings for me, I made myself out be a giant idiot!" Lucy scolded, trying to duck her face to hide her blush but still hold eye contact with the woman.

"But that was when you guy were still just getting to know each other! Now you are so much closer!"

"Just drop it Mira, please? I'm not really in the mood to discuss this right now. Besides, I just want to find who is _really _behind it—which is _not _Natsu—and turn them down. I'm not looking for a relationship right now."

Mira released a dejected sigh, mentally checking off Plan A with a big fat X. The point in this plan was to get the idea that Natsu held feelings for her into her head, but that obviously had failed. Mira almost regretted hinting at the idea of it prier months—er, years because of Tenrou—before the list had began.

Well … maybe there was one more thing they could do.

…

"Natsu!" Happy's voice rang through their house. They had decided to return back to their house for the day, seeing as Lucy had been in an irritable mood and had shoved her dresser up against the window so they wouldn't be able to get in. Of course, they could have easily just pushed it over, but Natsu didn't want to risk the thing falling on top of the girl if she was standing nearby at the time. Besides, they needed to get more food money.

"What's up little buddy?" he asked, popping out from the bathroom to see that the cat was waddling back and forth with a large basket in his arms—throwing his balance severely off. "What ya got there?" he asked, walking over and grabbing the basket so the Exceed could drop to the ground in exhaustion.

"I don't know, I just found it outside our door." Happy lied easily, still trying to catch his breath. Mira owed him for this—with a big juicy fish.

"I smell food." Natsu said with hungry eyes as he looked at the basket, easily ripping the plastic layer off of it and smiling at the large pile of meats and a pack of matches that sat inside.

"Natsu, there's a card." The cat said without even needing to look at the basket.

"Hmm?" he hummed curiously, before searching the basket for said card. When he found it taped to the back of the matches, he brought it closer to his face to read the tiny print. "From your secret admirer— Lucy."

.

.

.

"So, Lucy secretly admires me, huh? Not really a shock, but if she wanted to keep it a secret, she shouldn't have put it on the card." He said with a nonchalant expression. "Thanks anyway, Lucy!" he called into the air, digging into the mini chicken in the center.

Happy smacked his palm into his forehead with a sigh.

**And that's the end of this one! I had fun with it but it was a little difficult to write for. But I think it turned out how I wanted it to! Now, onto plan B!**


	3. Plan B

**I didn't really get many for B, the only one that I really received was an anonymous 'Boat ride', but I felt like I wouldn't be able to do too much with that since you know, Natsu's motion sickness—which I'm planning on saving for a later story. So, I thought up my own! While in the middle of Choir class … it just sorta hit me when we were singing in Finnish or something.**

Plan B – Ball

"A … ball … you want to throw … a ball." Lucy murmured with uncertainty to the white haired barmaid. The woman was swaying back and forth behind the counter with a dreamy expression.

"I don't _want _to throw a ball, we are _going _to throw a ball! It's been so long since we had a formal party and I feel that a ball would just perfect!"

"You _do _remember the last time that Fairy Tail attended a ball, Natsu stole a priceless crown and a good portion of the members got thrown out of the palace." Lucy reminded with a scolding tone, knowing for a fact that Mira had—surprisingly—been one of them when she used her Satan Soul transformation. No one was quite sure what it was that had led her to do it, but Lucy was fairly certain that it was a combination of the alcohol and the energetic buzz of the air from the brawl that had broken out between all the guilds.

"Yes, yes, I know, but that was at the Royal Palace. This time it will be within our own sanctuary of the Guild! We won't have to worry about any rules being broken." Mira said, keeping her positive attitude as vibrant as it had been when the idea had sprung.

"I suppose, and I guess it could be fun! Are we inviting any of the other Guilds?"

"Of course! It wouldn't be a Fairy Tail party if we didn't have our other friends here."

Lucy smiled kindly up at the cover model, letting the woman go into her inner dream world while she herself thought over the idea of a ball. It could be a good chance for her to use the new dress that she bought, and though she did enjoy the other Guild members company, it could be a little bit much to handle. Especially the males of Blue Pegasus, their undivided attention was incredibly overwhelming. But it would be nice to speak with Yukino and the friendly members of Mermaid Heel again. Possibly Sherry if she could keep her bitter comments to herself.

"We'll throw it in two days, enough time for the others to get here, to set up orders for the buffet and get enough drinks for everyone."

"_Two days?!_" Lucy gasped, there was just no way anyone could plan an entire party in two days, especially one as large as the ones that Fairy Tail throws. "Mira! That would be nearly impossible!"

"Key word is _nearly_, Lucy. We'll have the help of everyone in the Guild, not to mention that some of the other guests will be chipping in themselves." Then Mira leaned forward, a cunning smile crossing her face. "And I even asked a favor from Jason to come and put the party in Sorcery Weekly, it'll be the party of the year!"

"You're planning the party of the _year_ … in _two days_." Lucy stated doubtfully, earning a small glare from the barmaid.

"Have a little faith, Lucy! You don't even have to do anything other than show up! Trust me, it'll be fun!"

"I don't doubt _that_. It's gonna be crazy, that I can tell."

"So, are you thinking of bringing a date?" Mira asked, playful tone back in place as she wiped down the counter. A blush sprouted across Lucy's face at the woman's words.

"W-what?! N-no! Of course not! I _just _found out about the party! How could have I considered a _date_ already?!" Lucy asked, swinging her arms around a little bit as she tried to force her blush back down.

"Most people would instantly start to think about who they'd ask as a date when a _ball _is mentioned, Lucy." Mira chuckled, settling a glass of water down in front of the girl to help her cool off a bit.

"Well, I don't exactly think of _dates _when it comes to Fairy Tail, _Mira. _We aren't exactly known for romance here."

"True, but we are quite well known for having very attractive males." Mira added with a wink and a head nudge in the direction of the brawling males that fought in the center of the room. Lucy glances over to see Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Elfman and surprisingly, Laxus. Just a few of the very attractive males that Fairy Tail held, most of the others not quite as well known. Lucy couldn't help the small blush that sprouted at the sight of a shirtless Natsu, both he and Gray having started off with a Who-has-the-most-muscle Contest and thus ending with the two half naked and throwing punches. She didn't even want to _know _what got the other three males in on it.

"Why, do _you _have a certain date in mind?" Lucy asked innocently, trying to turn the attention back onto the barmaid. But Mira had years of experience in the romance business, so even though the question caught the woman off guard, it didn't show. She merely smiles kindly.

"Oh, me? I'll probably just be serving people all night. But that's not the point right now, so, who are you going to ask? Natsu? Gray? Loke?"

"Nope, not even going to give you a real answer."

….

The night of the ball was upon them before Lucy could even really process it. She was standing in the bathroom, poking at the hair style that Cancer had done up for her. It was slightly down, he had grabbed the two long strands of hair that usually framed her face and tied them back, giving her a slightly crown around her head and plenty of soft, wavy curls. Her makeup was subtle and her dress wasn't all that fancy, but she definitely liked it. She wouldn't wear anything _too _fancy to fairy Tail, not wanting to risk having Natsu burn it off of her on accident, or Erza slice the dress up when she thought that Lucy would be getting too hot.

The dress would originally touch the floor, but since she was wearing heels, the end of the silky red fabric brushed against her ankles. She looked nice, not over the top as she would have originally gone, but for some reason, she wanted to stay subtle that night.

"L-luce! H … help!" she heard a males voice from her bedroom, startling her out of her thoughtful gazing but remembered instantly who it was she had left in there. She shook her head with a sigh and walked over to the door, looking into the room to see that Natsu had somehow managed to completely entangle himself in the bow tie and was currently choking himself.

"I told you not to touch it! It took me forever to tie that thing because your just kept squirming!" Lucy scolded, stomping over to him on her bare feet and bent down, running her hands across the fabric until she found the right point to pull and yanked the man free in one swift movement. He gasped in the fresh air with greedy breaths, continuing to lie sprawled out across the floor until Lucy yanked him back to his feet and began to tie the bow _again. _

"But Luuuucccyyy, it's so stuffy and tight and I thought this party was supposed to be fun!" Natsu whined as she stood on her tippy toes to be eye level with his neck, focusing on the knot before answering.

"Just because you have to dress up a bit doesn't mean that it won't be fun, Natsu." She reprimanded, narrowing her eyes as she stared at the bow in confusion, forgetting a step somewhere along the line. It had been so long since she had tied them, somehow just doing it by instinct the first time that night.

"But I can hardly move in this thing!"

Lucy had to shift her eyes over and cough slightly to cover up the slight blush that began to cover her face. Whenever Lucy even _thought _of how Natsu looked right then, she began to blush. He looked very handsome in black suit that she had to pretty much force him into. Not to mention the hair style that Cancer had given him—but actually getting him to sit _through _the procedure had been the hard part, calling out Gemini to turn into Erza for as long as they could hold out to intimidate the Dragon Slayer into sitting still. His usual messy spikes had been styled a little more, brushed out of his face completely and to the side a little, making them stand a little straighter up. He definitely look handsome.

"You'll be fine, you can take the jacket off after we've been there for a while, but if I see that you've taken off those pants and go all Gray on us, I'll sic Aquarius on you. I didn't buy this suit for you to wear for only two minutes." She said with a huff before giving up on the tie, throwing it onto the bed. "I give up, I can't do it again."

"Yosh!" he cheered, grabbing his scarf and began to wind it around his neck before he felt her small hand rest on his arm to halt him.

"Wait! I just got an idea!" she said with a smile, grabbing onto the scarf and unwinding it. Folding it slightly, she unbutton the top of his shirt—not without blushing—and wrapped it around his neck again, folding it slightly so she could pull the collar of the shirt over the scarf and make it look like a part of the outfit. She stepped back while smoothing her hands down the front of his jacket. "There!"

"This … isn't as bad as the tie." He said with a grin, stuffing his hands into the jacket pockets and leaning back slightly.

"Good to know. Now, let's get going before the food is all gone!" Lucy said with an excited smile, grabbing a hold on Natsu's wrist, tugging it out of his pocket and dragging him to the door before he could toss her out the window. The Guild wasn't a very far distance, but in heels, it wasn't an entirely comfortable walk. Natsu continuously asked why she was so clumsy—her too embarrassed to tell him that her five inch heel kept getting caught in the spaces between the cobblestone roads. She knew he would just suggest that she not wear her shoes or something ridiculous like that. But before she could ponder any further on what he might have suggested, they had arrived at the entrance of the Guild.

The walls were practically vibrating from the loud music and talking coming from within, flashing lights spilling into the outside air through the few windows that the Guild had. The very air around the building was buzzing with excitement and joy, making her blood begin to pump with excitement without even being inside yet. She turned to face Natsu with a smile, but it dropped into a concerned frown when she saw that his expression looked confused and a little … reluctant? No, annoyed. That fit it better.

"What's the matter?" she asked, resting a hand on his arm to draw his attention to her. His eyes didn't leave the doors, but she saw his nostrils flare slightly, giving her a hint of what might be the problem.

"Sabertooth." He said simply. Lucy huffed out a breath, shaking her head.

"I don't see what the issue is. We ended things peacefully, so why they can't be here?"

"I thought it was just a Fairy Tail party." He seemed to pout, giving her an almost disappointed look.

"What are you talking about? Who told you that? Mira invited all of our friends! The ones in other Guilds, too!" she said, giving his an exasperated look. Why else did he think that she had dressed him up? If it was just Fairy Tail, she would have come in an even less special dress. Then again, Natsu wasn't the sharpest …

"No one told me that!" he said, looking shocked before a grin grew across his face. "If that's the case, let's go!" he said with a cry, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and dragging her through the now kicked open doors.

The sudden explosion of wood chips and the exuberant cry of, "WE'RE HERE!" had drawn many, if not all, eye to the duo. Many snickered at the vibrant blush on Lucy's face, either from the attention or the fact that Natsu's grip had shifted to around her neck and was now cutting off her air supply. Some rose their glasses and bottles in greeting before returning to what they had been doing.

"Natsu! Lucy! Want a drink?!"

The two of them turned their heads to at where the voice had called from. They spotted Mira and Lisanna standing behind the bar, waving their arms and pointing at some interestingly shaped and colored bottles.

"Come on! Mira makes the best Hell's Flames in Magnolia!" Natsu cheered with excitement, dragging Lucy across the main floor to get to the bar. The poor girl finally managed to get some air back when he shifted his hold to her wrist.

"H—" she coughed into her fist to clear her throat, still slightly gasping for air. "Hell's Flames? I've never heard of that drink." Lucy had become quite familiar with the different brands of alcohols and mixed drinks thanks to her previous social status and the fact that she had worked as a barmaid for Mira when she had been short on cash when Team Natsu hadn't been up for working.

"That's 'cause Mira made it up just for me!" he said with a wide grin as they reached the bar, Natsu's hold finally releasing her in favor of taking a seat at one of the spinning stools. "Give us two Hell's Flames!" he all but roared, smacking his fist on the counter.

Mira giggled behind her hand, but nodded nonetheless and bent down to grab her needed ingredients. While Natsu was excitedly slamming his fists on the table, watching Mira make the drink with a look akin to awe and a measured patience, Lucy leaned over the counter and motioned for Lisanna to lean closer to her.

"Is it safe for … a normal human being to drink it?" Lucy asked uncertainly as she watched Mira pour some very … exotic looking ingredients into the two glasses. Lisanna gave a giggle nearly the exact same way her sister had.

"Don't worry, Lucy. Mira-nee wanted to test it for herself to see if it would be worth putting it out on the menu. She wouldn't buy these expensive ingredients if only one person was going to drink it." Lisanna explained with a kind smile

"Here you go, you too." Mira said, shifting the drinks to sit in front of the two teammates. Lucy began to reach for the glass, but her wrist was ceased by a large tan hand. She glanced up at Natsu with a raised eyebrow, shifting her eyes down to his hand and back to his eyes to show her confusion.

"Just wait, it's not ready, just yet." He said. Still holding onto one of her wrists, he raised his other hand and held up his pointer finger. With a wide grin and a wink at her, the tip of his finger caught aflame and he hovered it over the top of his glass. She gasped in surprise when the drunk suddenly burst into a colorful explosion of gold, red and blue flames. It settled down until it was just a small coating over the top of the liquid, the flames barely rising to an inch.

A sweat began to coat Lucy's forehead when Natsu did the same to her drink. Her flames were different colors though, colder colors. Hers had dark purple, some darker shades of blue and a little bit of pink thrown into the mix. She couldn't help but stare in awe at the beautiful colors. She swore she saw stars glittering in the flames before it dimmed down to the same height of Natsu's.

Natsu finally relinquished his hold on her wrist and grabbed his own drink. She grabbed her own and smiled when he held his out to hers, clinking them together. She wasn't surprised when he didn't blow out the flames, drinking them down along with the beverage beneath. With a satisfied sigh, he put the glass back down on the counter and turned to her expectantly with happy eyes.

She shrugged before taking in a deep breath, about to blow out the flames, but yet again, her actions were halted by a big tan hand—this time, it slapped across her lips. The air blew out of her nose and ruffled her styled bangs as she looked at Natsu with growing irritation.

"Don't blow it out! That's the best part!" he said with an almost exasperated tone. Lucy looked to Mira and Lisanna for clearance, finding the two sisters watching the interaction with smiles and giggles.

"Wun ef urn meh?" she mumbled against his fingers, tempted to lick them so he'd get the hint and take his hand away, but decided against it. She didn't know where his hands had been, and she knew for a fact that he didn't wash them after said things.

"No, it won't burn you. The drink turns the flames cold." He explained, taking his hand away when he saw that she wouldn't blow it out.

"Okay then." She said with another huff of annoyance. All this trouble just for a drink. She sniffed it first, just to see if she could pick up any of the ingredients, but she wasn't able to pick up any scent whatsoever. With another shrug, she decided to down it in one go, like Natsu.

The flames weren't cold, like Natsu had said, but they weren't painfully, boiling hot. They were just warm, a comforting warm, that felt really weird going down her throat. Now the drink, it had a certain kick to it that was a cold kind of spicy, one that burned your tongue but froze it had the same time. It was interesting tasting, but pretty good.

"I like it!" she said with a smile, turning to face her partner and the two Strauss sisters but was met with mirth filled gazes and held back laughter. "What?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Um, well, Lucy, you have a little … _fire _on your lips." Mira said with a let loose giggle. Lucy's eyes widened as she looked at her reflection in the glass cabinets behind the bar. They were right! There was a ring of dark blue, dark purple and pink fire around her lips! _HER LIPS ARE ON FIRE!_

She tried to pat them out, smacking her hands onto the flames, but it only spread to said hands, making her panic even more.

"Guys! Don't just stand there! Do something!" Lucy screamed at her so called 'friends'. What kind of friends laugh at you when you're caught on fire?!

"Okay, okay. Calm down." Natsu said with another boisterous laugh, grabbing hold of her wrist again. She was expecting him to, blow them out—why didn't she think of that—or maybe douse something onto it. No, he didn't do that. No, he _stuck one of her fingers! Into _his _mouth! _

She squealed when she felt his tongue suddenly graze her finger. She yanked her still aflame hand away from his mouth and out of his grip, almost falling out of her chain but managed to keep her balance.

"_WHAT_ WERE YOU _DOING_?!" she screamed, possibly the largest blush she's ever experienced exploding on her face and across her shoulders and chest. She didn't even care that her hands and face were still on fire—well, obviously she still cared, it just slipped her mouth at the time—she wanted to know why _the hell _he had just _ate _her finger. Okay, so he didn't _eat _her finger, but it _had been in his mouth!_

Natsu tilted his head to the side with that adorable confused look he managed to have managed perfectly.

"Eating … the fire?" he asked, not sure if it was safe to actually say it.

"Why did you have to put my finger in your mouth?! Couldn't you just eat it like you normally eat fire?!" she flailed her arms around, in exasperation and to possibly put out the still flaming fingers—but it only made them spread all the way down to her wrist.

"That doesn't really get rid of it, fire grows, Luce. What I eat, just gets replace. So, I just put it out!" he said with that same innocent grin that she swore was his 'get-out-of-trouble-puppy-dog-pout' face. She knew it was one of the things that could make her raging anger simmer down in certain situations.

Lucy let out a large sigh before turning her attention to Mira.

"Could you give me a glass of water to put out these flames?"

"Sorry, Lucy, dear. Natsu's flames can't just be put out by a little splash of water." Mira said, her 'apologetic' look wouldn't have fooled Lucy if she wasn't in such a panic.

"And why would you let such delicious flames go to waste! C'mon, please Lucy? Just let me eat them?" he begged.

Lucy looked down at the fire that was covering her entire right hand and the fingers of her left with uncertainty before looking up at Natsu with a deep blush.

"Fine. But no licking."

Why did she add that last part?! Really?!

Natsu gave a cheerful call and grabbed her hand again, bringing it up to his mouth. When he stuck another one of her fingers into his mouth, she had to turn her face away and hold in a scream when, instead of licking, he sucked. Her mind was one over drive. She had absolutely no idea how to handle this kind of situation—come on, she hasn't even kissed anybody! How was she supposed to handle something that was usually used in a sensual kind of setting in one of her novels?

Natsu had finished her fingers and moved onto her hand, licking her palm and stuffing three of her fingers into his mouth at once. She couldn't help the embarrassed and shocked squeal that slipped out of her mouth. His mouth was so _freaking hot. _With a pop of his lips, he released her thumb and smiled up at her with that innocent beam again. She couldn't be angry at him, but that didn't stop her from being absolutely humiliated.

She thought that maybe it was over with, but then he started to lean towards her face, his eyes stuck on her mouth with a hungry gaze. She leaned back, her eyes going wide as she stared at his face, shifting over to Mira and Lisanna only briefly to see that they were … squealing and blushing … THEY WERE FANGIRLING AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!

"N-Natsu! W-what are you do-doing?!"

"You still have fire on your face." He said, making her blush grow when his voice came out deep and husky, as if he wasn't really focused on answering her.

And then he licked her cheek.

She did her best to hold in her embarrassed whines and screams, not wanting to draw more attention to the two of them, but couldn't help it. He had his hand gripping her forearm tightly as he lick around her mouth. At least he wasn't actually putting his lips her. That would count as kissing … in other words, sucking her face. Good god, she needed to get some fresh air.

When Natsu finally pulled away with a thankful smile at her, she let out the breath that she had been holding and fell out of her chair and onto the floor.

^V^V^V^V^V^

Despite herself, she found that she ended up drinking four more Hell's Flames with Natsu, finally getting the hang of _not _catching on fire. And Gray even managed to convince her to give the drink Mira had made for him a chance. Frozen Tundra had given her a brain freeze on the first sip and made her unable to talk for three minutes because her throat had suddenly gone numb. Thus, she ordered another Hell's Flames which is what helped thaw out her throat. Natsu had laughed at the fact that Lucy had liked his more than Gray's, slapping her on the back.

And that was how her night of trying the specially made drinks began. It seemed that almost everyone in the Guild had a special drink of their own and wanted Lucy to decide who's was better. In other words, it was a drinking contest, but she was the only one drinking. She had to say that her favorites were Levy's and Natsu's the most, Hell's Flames and Little Fairy. Everyone else's had been … to say the least, overwhelming and definitely more for themselves than anyone else. Steel Vengeance, Gajeel's, had tasted way to metallic, almost like licking a hammer, making her taste buds cringe. Real Man, obviously Elfman's … it just tasted like pure testosterone, if that was even a flavor. She couldn't describe it, but she had to hold back spitting it out at the first sip. Stone Heart, Evergreen's, had been alright, but it was a little too bittersweet for her tastes. Pain, Erza's, had been her third favorite. It pretty much tasted like wine, a little bit sweeter and had a real nice after taste that set her mouth into tingles.

She couldn't really remember the names or who's they belonged to after that, everything sort of blending together with her memory getting pretty foggy. She had only really sipped everyone's drinks, so she couldn't say that she had drunk like thirty drinks. She wasn't like Cana, she couldn't really hold her drinks well. She'd say she could probably drink … say, maybe eight or nine complete glasses in a row before passing out. Thankfully she knew how to pace herself, even if she was starting to feel the buzz.

There were still people trying to track her down in the crowd to get her to taste theirs, but she had managed to escape right under their noses. She was now currently hiding towards the back of the Guild, hoping that none of the Dragon Slayers were sober enough to distinguish her scent in the crowd of people.

"OI! BLONDIE! WHERE ARE YA?! YA STILL NEED TA TRY MY DRINK!" she flinched slightly when Laxus's bellowing voice screamed from somewhere in the Guild. She ducked deeper down behind the unused counter, clutching her drink in her hand. She was just sick of all the surprises in the drinks her friends were forcing on her. She wanted one that she knew she could handle and would actually taste good to her. She could still hear people yelling for her, but it was turning into background noise now, them being across the Guild. No one came back here anymore, except for her and Levy when they wanted quiet time away from everyone to read. It was their own little secret hiding place and she was happy she was sober enough to remember it.

She took a sip from her drink, one that wouldn't toss her over the edge into a complete drunken stupor, and leaned back against the aging wood wall. Oh yeah, all those little sips and the Hell's Flames she had drunk were going to hit her hard. She was gonna be completely drunk. She hoped she didn't embarrass herself as bad as she did when they were training for the games and apparently had Natsu pet her and carry her to the bathroom. Hopefully _everyone _will be just as drunk and won't remember anything that happens.

"Ah, Lucy-san. Here you are." She jumped at the unexpected new voice, whipping her head around to see some blonde guy walking up to her. She squinted her eyes, rubbing them a little to clear them.

"Oh, Sting-kun, hi." She said with a wave, relaxing. He wasn't one of the people trying to get her to drink things. Or was he … no, he wasn't part of the Guild. "What can I do for you?"

"Oh, nothing. Everyone's been looking for you, so I thought I'd track you down and see where you were hiding." He said, slipping completely through the little gap in the wall by pushing the wooden plank up and then dropping into the spot next to her.

"You try swallowing down thirty drinks that I'm pretty sure didn't have even real ingredients in them. I think Gajeel's had metal shards in it." She said with a sneer, touching her throat remembering the slightly scratch that had gone down her throat when she drank it, before downing the rest of her drink and sat her glass down beside her. She was ready to finally feel that satisfying blur that came with drinking, that verge of consciousness. She knew she was going to regret all that alcohol tomorrow, but right now, she didn't care. Everyone was going to be just as hung-over, so she wouldn't be suffering alone.

"I tried it, it wasn't that bad. And they were steel, not metal." He said, picking up her glass and holding it up to his nose, sniffing it before licking up the remaining drops.

"Says the Dragon Slayer that shoots lasers from his mouth. I'm positive I'll be coughing up all sorts of things I don't remember eating tomorrow." she hiccupped.

And it begins.

She felt a slow smile grow over her lips, her vision blurring in and out.

She blinked long and slow, but when she opened them again, she was out on the dance floor with Sting doing some sort of awkward shuffle while trying not to spill his drink. She saw the pink on his cheeks and on his neck. He was hammered.

"My shoes are killing me." She suddenly complained, but it was sort of a lie, she couldn't feel her feet.

"You're not wearin' any." Sting comment, tilting back and forth a little before catching himself and continued his shuffle.

She looked down at her feet, almost slumping forward at the action, but caught herself against Sting's arm, and saw, in fact, she wasn't wearing any shoes.

"Oh, guess not. Where'd mah drink go?" she murmured, looking around the room, trying to find her Champaign.

"Huh, er, I think it's in yer hand … no wait … yeah! You're hand!" he said, pointing at her right hand. She looked down and indeed, her glass was in her grip.

"OH!" she said, taking a sip, but pouted when she found it empty. She chucked it into the air, not even noticing the scream of 'OW!' along with the sound of glass smashing. "Omigawd! I love this song! Evry'one! Shaddup!" she screamed, starting to sway back and forth in a liquid like dance.

"Wait … who're you … oh! You're sal'mandar's girl." Sting said, leaning closer to her face with an intense stare, looking at her face.

Salamander … she belongs to a lizard? What the hell is she doing with her life? She's got this awesome body, she shouldn't be wasting it on a some tiny little lizard! What kind of person even does that?!

"Wha …? I dun belong to some lizard! I'm not tha' kinda girl!" she snarled, smacking her fist and his shoulder with enough force that would have thrown a normal person to the ground, but Sting only swayed and bounced back into her.

"Wat'r you goin' on 'bout, a lizard? There's a lizard 'ere?" He didn't even notice her stumble to the ground. "How'd ya get on da ground?"

"I dunno …" she mumbled, laying down on her back and staring up at the lights on the ceiling. "Hehe … shiny."

"Lemme see." Sting mumbled, dropping onto the ground next to her on his stomach. His arm slammed into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her, but she didn't even notice, to entrance by the lights. "I dun see an'thing." He said, his words muffled by the floor.

"Oi, oi! Sting and Lucy, getting' on the floor!" someone yelled from the crowd, cheers and cat calls erupting into the air.

"Wait … we're on da floor? Who's … where's Sting?" Lucy yelled out. "Where is evr'yone?!" she panicked, not seeing anyone in front of her, but there were voices everywhere.

She forced herself to sit up, the heavy weight across her stomach falling to set in her lap. Looking down at it confusedly, all she saw was this lightly brown thing sitting in her lap … maybe it was food.

She picked up the limb, brought it to her mouth and bit her teeth into as hard as she could.

"**_OW!_**" her teeth didn't relinquish her hold when she felt something pulling on her snack, only chomping down harder and gripping it tightly with her hands. "LEGGO! LEGOO!" she shook her head violently, continuing to gnaw on her food.

"Sum'body halp! Somethin's try to eat me!"

And her food was suddenly ripped from her mouth. Licking her lips and the air around her mouth, trying to find her food and coming up empty, her lips began to quiver.

And let out a loud sob.

"She's cryin'! What do we do?!"

"Someone get a bucket! We can use the water for emergencies!"

"Great idea!"

"Someone! Make sure she keeps crying!"

"Men are weak to womanly tears!"

"Wait, that's a girl? I thought it was a salamander!"

"There's a lizard here?!"

"WHAT?!"

_*Loud screaming* _

"Sting! Did you make 'er cry?!"

**And that is the end of this one. Not to worry, you'll find out more about the party … later … *evil laughter* SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG! I GOT A NEW COMPUTER AND I DIDN'T HAVE ANY FILES ON IT ****_FOREVER _****BUT NOW I DO SO I GOT TO WRITING RIGHT AWAY. A lot of this I ended up rewriting. Like at first, Natsu and her didn't get drinks, he abandoned her to go fight and Levy came and drug her to the girls. But I like this better. See you next time! Send me prompts for 'C'!**


	4. Plan B: Aftermath

**And thus the continuation of plan B, or really, the after affect in other words. Just cause I wanted to sorta keep going with the plot for the plan, but it not really have anything to do ****_with _****the plan, if you get what I'm saying.**

Plan B: Ball (Aftermath)

The moment that consciousness hit Lucy, she let out a rumbling groan. Everything ached. Her head, her feet, her eyes, her ears, her stomach, her chest, her arms, her butt, and just … everything. She wasn't quite ready to be awake, she wanted to sleep the pain away, but she knew that it doesn't work like that. Her mind was awake thanks to the aches, and they weren't gonna let her go back to sleep until they were dealt with.

Peeking an eye open, she saw the familiar paint shade of her apartment ceiling being lit up by the painfully bright morning sun. Lifting an arm up, she sluggishly tossed them over her eyes, trying to protect them from the evil beams of light coming from her window. Sliding it back and forth, she wiped the sleep from her eyes before dropping it back down onto the ground with a sigh. But instead of the soft bounce of her mattress, she hissed when her wrist bone suddenly smacked against hard wood.

She was on the floor.

And was being pinned down. With another groan, she lifted her head enough to see what it was that was lying across her stomach. To say the least, she wasn't very surprised to see a head of pink hair resting on her stomach, his arms splayed out in front of him gripping the corner of the blanket that had been precariously thrown on top of her. If she had to guess, she would say that he was going to lay the blanket over her, but ended up tripping, falling on her with the blanket still in hand and just decided to stay there. Happy was lying across her shins, completely pinning her down with his claws digging into the black cover …

Why was she in a giant black bag? And it wasn't a garbage bag, it had a zipper going along the side, like a sleeping bag, but it went all the way up. She was lucky it wasn't zipped all the way up, or else she probably would have gone into panic mode. And that's when she realized … it was a body bag. One used to move dead bodies around, or in some cases, kidnappings.

She didn't have the energy to move a muscle, especially enough to remove the two boys lying on top of her. She supposed she should be freaking out like she would have originally, but she was just too tired and her head hurt too much to yell and scream and flail around. So, to pass the time, she examined herself and her partners.

Natsu's head was nestled on her stomach, but that was all he was really touching. He was lying horizontally across her, thankfully. She wouldn't have cared if she was going to hurt even more, if he had been lying completely on top of her like she sometimes wakes up to, she would have kicked them both as hard as she physically could. All he was wearing was his puffy white pants, but they were sagging down his legs slightly, his belt missing and she could see the rim of his red boxers. His spiked hair was sagging over his forehead with his bangs, but what she found interesting was that the tips of the pink locks were black. Not charred, but dyed. His signature scarf wasn't anywhere to be found from her position, but she would keep her eye out for it when she was finally able to stand up.

Happy looked relatively normal, if not a little bloated from, no doubt, an inhumanely amount of fish consumption. He was hugging her legs and snoring lightly, his tail wrapped around her visible foot, and she had to admit, it was really cute.

She couldn't see any of the possible damage inflicted upon herself thanks to the body bag and the blanket. She could see that her arms were free of anything that shouldn't be there, but for the rest of her body … she was starting to get curious, or a better word would be scared.

She couldn't remember a damn thing from the night before, other than getting to the Guild, having a few drinks with Natsu, and then everyone asking her to try their drinks … after that, it was a blank. She vaguely remembered a little dancing, but that was still a big blur among the blank spot in her memory. Her room didn't look all that trashed, other than a few things being knocked off her dresser, the window sill looking a little on the burnt side and some clothes lying around. She doubted anything really happened here and that most of the night had been spent at the Guild. She knew she was completely hammered the night before, so either Happy had flown her and Natsu back to her apartment, or Natsu had been sober enough to carry her himself.

Her face pinched up in discomfort when Natsu turned his face into her stomach, huffing out an uncomfortably hot gust of air onto her already sweltering stomach. Natsu's naturally overheated body temperature not helping.

Man, she needed an aspirin. She was about to close her eyes and try and force herself back into a hangover stupor, when her stomach suddenly lurched. She smacked her hand across her mouth, a burning hot burp slipping out silently. She needed to get to the bathroom, and soon. She had a feeling that she'd be seeing everything she drank last night very soon.

Mustering all the strength that she could, she sat up and tossed Natsu's head off of her, his hands still gripping the blanket. She wasn't able to kick Happy off, his claws dug too deeply into the body bag fabric, so, with a slightly strangled cry, pulled herself out of the body bag and rushed to the bathroom, stumbling the entire way. She threw the door open and ran to the toilet just in time to relieve herself of … an orange liquid with metal screws floating in it. The sight of it made her heave again.

When she was sure that she would be fine temporarily, she stood up shakily and walked to the sink, splashing water on her face and a little on her hair to help her smooth it away from her face. She was panting and her face felt like it was on fire. Maybe … this was more than a hangover. Yes, her stomach and head was killing her, but it felt like … more. She had been hungover before, and it wasn't like this. All it had been was the aches and the vomiting, but her entire body was flushed and she felt rather weak.

Either the amount of alcohol was just too much for her body, or she had done something last night that was making her sick. She really hoped it was just the alcohol, she didn't have the money or time to be sick.

She looked up at her reflection, seeing her flushed cheeks, the coat of sweat that was growing on her forehead and the hazy look her eyes held. Well, no wonder her neck is so hot, she's got Natsu's scarf coiled around it … what.

Her half-lidded eyes widened at the sight of the treasured, checkered scarf coiled rather thoroughly around her neck. And no wonder she hadn't noticed when she was looking at herself when she was on the floor. It had been bundled up in the back and tied, making it flat against her neck like a collar. She twisted her shoulders so she could look at the tie and knew instantly from the multitude of twists and windings that she wouldn't be able to untie it on her own.

She huffed out a breath and leaned against the sink, her knees beginning to shake from holding herself up for too long. Taking a deep breath to help clear her mind, she stood up as straight as she could and stumbled to the kitchen. Pulling out a glass from her cupboard, she held it under the faucet and struggled to turn it on for a few seconds until cold water came rushing out and into the cup. Pulling the cup out from under the stream, she lifted it to her lips and chugged the entire glass in three chugs, holding it under the still running faucet to get more. Her throat was _on fire. _

She had to wake up Natsu and Happy and get to the Guild to figure out what the hell had happened last night. She knew that Mira hadn't drunk anything, saying that she had to make sure that everything stayed at least a little under control since the Master would more than likely be the most drunk. Reaching for another cabinet, she pulled out a bottle of medical pills that Wendy had given her that should help her body heal itself faster—no matter what it was that was wrong—and turned back towards her bedroom.

Time to awaken the dragon and his cat.

^V^V^V^V^V^

It took the trio about two hours to finally completely wake up and get to the Guild, mostly thanks to Natsu waking up still partially drunk and hadn't recognized at her first—until he saw his scarf and smelt her scent. She gave him one of the pills and he seemed to sober up pretty quickly. He didn't even appear to have a stomachache.

She was carrying Happy in her arms, still sleeping and refusing to awaken, when they reached the Guild, stepping through the completely gone doors. She couldn't remember if that had been their fault when they arrived, or someone had finished it off sometime during the night. Either way, everyone seemed to be awake, and some of the outside Guild members appeared to have left sometime during her absence and unconsciousness.

She had Natsu's arm thrown across her shoulders, apparently the stomachache hitting him halfway through their walk and wanted to have her as a support beam. But she swore to him that if he threw up on her, she'd dump him in the river—which made him stop moaning instantly, but that might have been due to the fact that he knocked unconscious for a few seconds.

Either way, they made it there in one piece.

Everyone grumbled their greetings to the three of them when they passed by on their way to the bar, Lucy murmuring her own hellos but not really paying them any mind. She wanted to talk to Mira about what had happened last night. The Guild was trashed.

Tables were thrown about the room, chairs were broken and hanging from the ceiling, a few people were passed out either half naked, completely naked, or wearing something that belonged to the opposite gender, the walls had graffiti of strange lettering and immature drawings of penises all over, some on the ceiling that Lucy wouldn't even begin to guess how they managed to do. Summed up, everything was absolutely chaotic. She was beginning to become nervous as to how much damage she had done, if any at all.

When they reached the back bar, where Mira stood in the act spot, rubbing down a mug with that same content smile on her face, she dumped Natsu onto a stool and threw Happy onto the counter. Her arms were aching from supporting the both of them, so she didn't care that Natsu had happened to fall off of the stool and Happy had bounced somewhere out of sight. She fixed her eyes on Mira with a determined gaze to get information from the woman, just knowing that she knew absolutely everything that had happened and would hold certain things over their heads if she didn't find out what it was.

"Oh, Lucy! It's nice to see you up and about." The white haired barmaid said kindly, placing the beer mug back into its rightful place before picking up a wine glass. "What can I do for you?"

"I need information, Mira. What the hell happened last night?!" she asked, setting herself onto the stool beside her and leaned against the counter. The magic pill had definitely helped with the hangover side effects, but she still wasn't feeling completely like herself. She still felt flushed and extremely hot, not to mention a little dizzy, but she would blame it on carrying Natsu halfway to the Guild.

"Why, a lot of things happened. And not to worry, Jason took plenty of pictures and footage, so I don't think I'll need to explain."

All the blood drained from Lucy's face. She had completely forgotten that Jason had been invited to the party to document the party of the year, and now, who knew what kind of crazy stories he'd spread about the pictures he took! He had once written an article about her and Elfman having a secret relationship, which had caused a lot of confusion and drama within the guild. Evergreen had threatened to turn her to stone, Bixlow had made multiple dirty comments that embarrassed both her and Evergreen, comments that she would rather not think about. Natsu had believed her when she said that nothing was going on, him saying that he would have been able to smell him on her if that had been going on. She didn't know if she should have been relieved by the fact, or disturbed that Natsu was able to tell who she had come into contact with during the day just by smelling her. Not to mention that Mira had seemed … heartbroken, her eyes shifting between the stellar mage and Natsu before promptly passing out. By the time she had woken up, the issue had been resolved and they told her it had just been a crazy dream.

Mira must have seen the complete horror on her face, because she suddenly giggled and patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry, dear, he doesn't have any of the pictures yet. I requested that the Guild hold them and decide which ones he can have before he publishes the article. I was just going to wait for everyone to wake up before putting them into the Lacrima projector."

Though it made her happy that Jason didn't have the pictures and that they would be able to decide which ones Jason could choose from, she was still incredibly nervous about the entire guild seeing what she might have done. She didn't have a single idea what she had done last night, but she hoped it wasn't so attention grabbing that Jason would take hundreds of her. There had been several Guilds at the party, so it wouldn't be _too _much of a surprise if she hardly showed up in any of the pictures at all.

"Until then, why don't you have a drink?"

"NO! Never again!" Lucy exclaimed, throwing her hands forward as if to shove the very thought away from her.

"I was thinking more along the lines of tea, or hot chocolate." Mira giggled behind her hand, awaiting the girls reply with interest.

"Surprise me." Lucy sighed, dropping her head onto the counter with a thud. When she heard the clink of the mug being set beside her head, she mumbled her thanks but didn't lift her head.

What kind of things happened last night? She knew that, due to the guild's interesting quirks, there was going to be some good blackmail material, but what good would it be if she could possibly be just as embarrassed. She became a pretty different person when she was drunk, or so her friends told her, and she was concerned about what kind of things she had done. She knew that once, when they had been training for games, she had come onto Natsu, which had absolutely terrified the boy. She doesn't remember a thing from that night, and that's what scares her. She was told that he carried her to the bathroom on his back, but who knew what kind of stuff she tried on him when they were alone! He would be the only one to know about it unless he told the other guys, but they never teased her about anything—which they would have immediately done if they learned. So, either, she hadn't done a single thing, or Natsu kept it all a secret.

He never acted differently towards her, so her guess is that he must have brushed it off as the alcohol doubling her 'weirdo'ness. Or maybe he knew it was the alcohol that was making her act weird, and didn't want to hold it to her. Or maybe—

"Okay everyone! I hope you're ready to see the pictures from last night!" Mira's voice cut off her thought pattern, waking her up from her daydream to look up. Mira had sat the Lacrima ball on top of the counter and held a glowing square between her fingers. With a giggle, she slipped it inside of the ball and stood back, watching as a beam of light shot into the air to make a screen.

She felt Natsu finally get up from the floor, albeit groggily and most likely not entirely awake, and sit on the stool beside her, the one that he had fallen off of the first time. He squinted up at the glowing screen, everyone waiting for the pictures to start filing through with a nervous excitement.

She was thankful that first picture that came up wasn't of her. It was Laxus and Gajeel arm wrestling on one of the tables, both looking like they weren't even trying and simply smirked at one another from across the table. The next was of Gajeel, lying on the floor, his eyes swirling and mouth hanging open with a table split in half in the background and Laxus walking away with his hand held out in victory. She chuckled along with everyone else, while Natsu bellowed out loudly, smacking his fist on the counter.

The next was of Levy, sitting innocently at one of the booths with a book hiding her face. Lucy could see the white around her knuckles as she clutched the book tightly, her knees pulled up to her chin. Levy was annoyed. Lucy could just see it. The Shadow Gear team stood behind her, smiling at the camera, and giving her antler ears. She apparently had enough of their fooling around because the next picture was the two of them lying face first on the ground, smoking square indents on their heads while Levy was in the exact same position as the last, only the content smile was visible on her face now. Lucy knew that Levy first starts out as an agitated drunk, but then progressively grows loopy. And it was clear the girl had been drinking thanks to the four empty glasses of who knows what sitting on the table.

The next had everyone laughing.

It was Gray and Lyon, their foreheads pressed together as they glared heatedly at one another with Juvia and Chelia hugging in the background with hearts in their eyes as they stared at the two eyes make wizards. A collage of pictures followed after, showing what happened in chronological order. Lyon and Gray were now standing apart, but their shirts were seen fluttering in the air in the background, Chelia and Juvia both jumping for their designated ones. The next made Lucy blush, because now Gray was completely naked, staring down at himself in confusion and panic with Lyon apparently screaming at him. Juvia was in the back, passed out with a fountain of blood shooting up from her nose while Chelia had her face covered.

And in came Erza, her face flushed but looking angrier than usual. She crushed the two boys under her feet, both of them having tears running down their faces, and Juvia and Chelia gripping each of Erza's arms, trying to pry the warrior away from their beloveds.

There were a few with the other Guilds, some with Mermaid Heel girls posing, but not looking intoxicated in the least. There was another that had Lucy smirking in satisfaction. Levy was seated in the same spot, but now, she had company. Rogue sat beside her, staring at the book she held out to him with a small smile. Frosch sat in her lap, smiling at the page with amazement, and there in the back, was Gajeel, looking rather … steamed.

Of course there were many pictures of the Blue Pegasus males, mostly of them doing common things, like drinking, eating, talking amongst themselves. Those bored everyone, until it came to them flirting with a group of girls. Their stood Yukino, blushing and most likely shuffling awkwardly back and forth, Jenny, Laki, and Millianna; all of them reacting differently to the presence of the attractive males. The next one showed the boys standing frozen in shock as the girls ran away.

Apparently, all of this happened before she and Natsu had arrived, because the next showed the two of them at the entrance, only one of the doors broken—so it hadn't been them that completely broke it then. She felt a blush grow slightly on her cheeks at the sight of the blush in the picture. In the picture, Natsu stood innocently smiling at the crowd with his arm around her shoulders, her not having noticed that his hand was precariously close to her boob.

Lucy had a feeling that she should escape to the bathroom for the next few pictures. If she knew Mira, she knew that the woman had most likely bribed the reporter to pay close attention to the people she wanted to get together. Then next on coming events were going to scare her forever. She remembered them. But when she stood to leave, Mira pinned her with a blank stare, not threatening in the least, but it disturbed Lucy so much, that she immediately sat back down. She apparently made the right decision when Mira began to smile again.

The next was of Natsu lighting her drink on fire and holding her wrist, the Strauss sisters standing in the back with matching grins. The next was her freaking out because her face and hands were on fire, Natsu laughing in amusement, and the sisters staring akin to shock, but their smiles still in place. Then him sucking on her fingers, but it must have been when she agreed to let him do it, because she was covering her face and leaning as far away from him as she could. And then, it was him licking her face.

She felt pretty much everyone's eyes on her then, but she tried to ignore their stares. She just continued to look up at the screen, hoping that it would move onto the next group of people. But it stayed on her for quite a while. The next pictures came with her being forced to drink all the different specialized brands and all her bizarre reactions to them. And then, thankfully, she disappeared for a while.

The rest of the pictures were mostly uninteresting to her unless she saw someone that she was close to doing something … weird. Like Natsu and Gray standing a few feet away from each other, back to back, but they were in fighting stances, blurs where their arms would be swinging. They had been fighting drunk and didn't even know where the other was. She felt like smacking her forehead but refrained, her head still pounding slightly.

In came Erza again to break up the fight, but this time, she smacked them both with a chair, the broken bits lying around the second picture with both boys lying on top of each other, bumps grown from their skulls. Then there was Gajeel, holding Levy above his head, apparently running through the Guild with a knocked out Rogue lying on the ground in the back. Levy wasn't reacting to the action, just lying stuff as a board as he ran. Then there was Juvia, crying against Lyon's shoulder with Gray in the back, looking … guilty and angry. It was then, she noticed, that Juvia was being _held _in place by Lyon and was most likely crying because she wanted to escape from him.

Then next few pictures were of her and Sting, which she vaguely remembered about. It was them, on the dance floor, standing feet apart doing some sort of awkward chicken dance/shuffle. And then, it was them lying on the ground, her on her back, Sting on her face. And then her biting his arm and him screaming to the high heavens. Oh yea, she sort of remembered that. BUT SHE DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS HIS ARM! SHE THOUGHT IT WAS FOOD!

Everyone burst into laughter at the sight of Sting crying and smacking her head, trying to rip his arm out of her mouth, but she was refusing. Natsu was laughing pretty hard, but she noticed that he had been mostly quiet through the picture of her and the blond dragon slayer dancing.

And then … it got weird.

There she was, crying in the next one, with Sting holding his arm and bawling like a baby. Everyone appeared to be running back and forth in the back, since they were slightly blurry from motion. They appeared to be in a panic. The next was Natsu smacking Sting repeatedly on the head with his fists. Then there was Elfman, engulfing her in a giant hug, crying just as hard.

The next, made her blush a thousand degrees hotter than her normal temperature. It was her, mostly unconscious, in Natsu's arms. She was smiling blearily at the camera, her hand raised in a wave, and Natsu had his face tucked into her neck from behind, staring at the camera with small, narrowed green eyes. The next was too blurry to see what was going on, but she could see that his head was still tucked into side of her neck, but she was freaking out a little, her movements blurred by frantic action.

She reached a hand up to touch her neck, her fingers brushing against the fabric of Natsu's scarf, which was still tied around her neck. What was underneath it …?

The next picture that had her in it, she had Natsu's scarf tied around her neck … and she was unconscious. Her eyes widened as she took in the picture that was plastered on the screen. It was a picture that just made you wonder what the hell was going on. She was unconscious with a big goofy grin on her face, being held in between Natsu and Sting. Sting was gripping her ankles and Natsu had his hands hooked onto her forearms, holding her into the air while Gajeel came barging in from the background with the body bag she woke up in. A lot of people looked panicked, Natsu looked almost in tears along with many others, and then there was Cana, Mira, Laxus and Lisanna in the back, smirking and seemingly trying to cover up their laughter.

The next was her hanging halfway out of the bag, being carried over Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel's shoulders out the guild doors. She was still grinning goofily, her arms swaying back and forth along with the pace they were running at, and the scarf was still tied around her neck.

Now, the next picture had her jaw dropping onto the counter. This one was taken outside, by the river. She was _airborne. _The picture showed Gray and Gajeel throwing her _into the river, _Mira in the background, both hands covering her mouth and her eyes widened in shock. Natsu stood slightly behind them, tears running down his face as he watched her fly into the river. And then in the back, Levy, Sting, Rogue, Lyon, Elfman, Evergreen, Master, and the Blue Pegasus boys stood in even lines, hands folded in front of their chests … and appeared to be singing.

The next showed Mira and Lisanna frantically yelling at the three boys, motioning to the river where you could see her floating down it slowly. Natsu's eyes were wide with tears and a happy smile as he looked at the sisters while Gray and Gajeel stood to the side, white with their spirits leaving them, staring after her.

The next showed Lucy, dripping wet, completely unconscious, her lips a little blue, as she was held between the three idiots that had thrown her into the river. They were all grinning at the camera, someone giving her bunny ears and thumbs-ups. After that was a series of group pictures of each Guild, but Lucy wasn't paying any attention to those. And apparently, no one else was either. Everyone was staring at her completely shocked expression.

"You guys … _threw _me … INTO THE _RIVER?!" _she shrieked, turning to see the three boys in questions making their escape out of the doors. She stood up to chase after them, but all of the emotions running through her mind and the increase of temperature at her rage, was too much for her body.

She promptly fell to the ground in a dead faint, her skin a rather bright shade of pink and huffing out pants.

**Sorry for the delay, I got into Doctor Who the other day so I was having a marathon and made it to season 3, episode … 8(?) in a day and a half, plus, I read divergent In less than 12 hours, so I'm pretty proud of myself. HERE IT IS! And I've decided that I'm not going to tell you guys what the prompt is until the end of the chapter, by giving you a little scene between the matchmakers. *evil laughter* *Cuts off into chokes***


	5. Plan C

**As stated in last chapter's A.N., you'll learn the title of the prompt at the end of the story.**

Plan C

Lucy lay underneath the large piles of blankets and sheets that had been piled on top of her, weighing her down so much that she could barely twitch her foot. The only visible aspect of the beautiful blond, however, was the top half of her face, her nose up … well, except for her forehead, which had a folded wet clothe resting on top. Her hazed brown eyes glared at the pink haired man that had climbed in through her bedroom window, watching as he tried to be sneaky as he closed it behind him. She had pretty much banned him, Gray and Gajeel from stepping within a fifty foot radius of her for the next two weeks, thanks to their idiocy three days prior.

Natsu had looked so absolutely shocked and heartbroken and pleading, she almost cracked under his (fake) watery gaze. However, all she needed to remind her of their stupidity was the shudder that had racked through her body before an earth trembling sneeze had bellowed out of her body, and she bid him away. Mira and Wendy had stopped by earlier that day, Mira bringing medicine and plenty of cozy blankets, and Wendy kindly placing her Troia spell over the celestial mage. However, like the last time she had caught a cold, it would take a while for it to completely heal her. Though this time, it would take _two _days to pass over.

And not fifteen minutes after they had walked out the door—after having bundled up the sick girl and made sure that she was comfortable, of course—Natsu came stumbling into her apartment. He had probably assumed that she would be sleeping, since that's what she had been doing all day the day before. Wendy had been off on a mission during the party with Carla, Romeo, Wakaba, and Macao, Mira explaining that they hadn't wanted the younger members around when the party was going on. Wakaba and Macao had been "persuaded" into going along, or so Mira said. And since the absence of the young girl had lasted until this morning, she could have only hoped to sleep it away.

After the window had finally slid shut, Natsu huffed with his fists pressed against his hips proudly, and turned around to see that she was awake and not looking too happy with his presence. His proud attitude instantly deflated at the sight of her glare, donning a vulnerable and almost sheepish façade.

"I, uh, forgot my scarf here." He muttered, standing up straighter as he scratched the back of his head.

"No you di'nt." Lucy stumbled out, sniffing and tried to clear her nasally voice. Oh, how she hated flem. "You lef' i' here. On purbose … aroun' my neck." She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her face away from him, letting out three painful coughs that ripped their way up her throat. The movement reminded her that she still had Natsu's scarf knotted around her neck, for some reason, no one willing to take it off of her. She had tried herself, but just ended up tightening it even more. She totally would have called a spirit to help her, but unfortunately, since she was sick, her magic was rather weak. The only spirit she would be able to really summon is Plue, and he doesn't have fingers, so he wouldn't be very useful. Of course, the shivering little cutie was great company.

The other day, she had even threatened to cut it off herself if Natsu didn't remove it, but he caught her lie instantly. He knew perfectly well that she would never do that to something so precious to him, which was completely true. Over the time that they've grown to know each other, she came to treasure the little strip of fabric nearly as much as him.

"Are you gonna dake id off now?" she really hated being sick. She finally turned her face to look back at him, but jumped slightly when she discovered that he was far closer than he was before. He was squatting beside the top of her bed, his arms folded on the edge of the mattress with his chin resting on top. He was staring at her intently, well, more like through her. It looked like he was in thought.

"You have to promise you won't get angry." He said flatly after a few minutes of silence, his eyes finally completely focusing on her. Her glare narrowed suspiciously as she looked over his face, trying to find any kind of hint as to why she might get angry. But he kept his face completely blank.

Huffing out a heavy sigh, she nodded. She slid the top blankets down to her waist and shakily sat up, panting from the exertion. Oh yea, this cold was far worse than her last one. She had barely any energy to move.

She felt Natsu's rough, calloused hands grip her shoulders, helping her turn her back to him so he could undo the knot. She thought it would take a few minutes, since it was bigger than a softball, but one second it was there, and the next, it was falling into her lap. Turning, she leaned against the headboard of her bed and reached a hand up, feeling for anything that the scarf had been hiding. She didn't feel anything other than sweaty skin, but one glance at Natsu showed that he was growing increasingly nervous as she felt around. When she still didn't feel anything, she sighed and slid back down onto her pillows.

"I'll worby 'boud id whem I'm bedder." She muttered, pulling the blankets back up to her neck and rolling to her side, her back to Natsu. "Now, go away."

"Naaah, c'mon, Lucy! I can take care of you!" he whined, but she still didn't turn around to face him, knowing that he'd be giving her a sort of puppy dog pout.

"No. You'b done enouv." She said, trying to make her words sound final, but it was incredibly hard when she was talking like a three year old. She pulled the blanket farther over her shoulders and rolled into a ball. "Go to da Guild and ged a job." She offered, hoping that the idea would excite him and make him leave. She wasn't necessarily too angry at him, since they all had done some … questionable things that night at the party, but she still partially blamed him. She seemed to have to remind him that Gray and Gajeel were getting their own sort of punishment, he was just getting a cold shoulder because she sees him more often than the other two. She figured she might dye Gray's hair pink when she catches him sleeping at the Guild, and Gajeel's guitar might 'mysteriously' vanish for a week or four. The cold shoulder was being dealt to all three of them. Natsu should consider himself lucky that he wasn't getting an extra punishment. She was going easy on him since he seemed like the only one in the pictures that was truly regretful about throwing her in the river.

"Nooooo! I gotta make it up to you! So, I'm staying right here until you get better." He said with finality, and one glance over her shoulder showed her that he was standing straight with his arms crossed over his chest. With a few choice words that could only be used in these types of situations, she knew she could have him scrambling for the window, but, she for some reason kept quiet. She just wanted to go to sleep and wait for it to pass, but with him around, she wasn't sure that was going to be a possibility.

"Whad can you do? I'm zick! I dun dink you'b eben been zick bevore."

She can hardly understand herself at this point, but Natsu seemed to understand her loud and clear.

"Well, I can do this, for one thing." She turned around to look at him and saw that he was leaning over the end of the bed, towards her with his hand outstretched. She sat completely still, waiting to see what it was that he was going to do.

She felt his hand press down on her forehead, sit there for a few seconds before sliding up and brushed her bangs back. She felt … like she could think now. She wasn't so incredibly hot anymore that she felt like she might just shrivel up into a raisin.

"Wha … whad did you do?" she asked, looking up at him in astonishment.

"I took away your fever, but it's only temporary. It'll come back in an hour, more or less. But it's something." He said with a smile, hopping onto the side of the bed and crossing his legs, looking at her expectantly. She knew exactly what he wanted. With a deep sigh, she closed her eyes and flipped onto her back.

"Oday, you can stay." She said, staring up at her ceiling. "Vor now, ad leasd." She decided to add on, just in case he annoyed her too much.

"Yosh! Thanks, Lucy!" he beamed down at her, jumping up from the bed to stand in the middle of the room. She watched him curiously as he looked around. "Uh … what now?"

"Id's besd if I jus' keep warm an' sleep." She said with a small smile, turning back around to go do just that. Fatigue was always heavy on her when she was sick, but she usually fought it. Just to say, she never really had any good dreams when she was sick, thanks to the heat of her body, it made everything uncomfortable. Ever since she was a child, if she got a fever, she'd always have dreams of being trapped in a volcano or being thrown in a furnace or something of the like.

She just decided to ignore his presence for now and try to sleep. Maybe she'd be able to escape the heated nightmares since her fever was temporarily gone.

(_)(_)(_)(_)

She woke up with a start when she heard something crash from within her apartment, her eyes flying open and immediately jumping out of bed. Another crash came from the kitchen, making her jump. She completely forgot about her illness and grabbed her keys from the bedside table, tip toeing across the hardwood flooring as quickly, yet as quietly as she could.

She peeked into the threshold, expecting to see a burglar or a serial killer stealing her pots and pans, or trying to find a sharp enough kitchen knife to stab her through the heart with. Instead, she saw a pink haired man, completely wrapped in saran wrap and her baking apron, rolling around on her floor with pots, pans and silverware spilled everywhere.

"Natsu! Whad are you doing?!" she screamed, making the air suddenly go still as Natsu stopped frantically rolling around to stare up at her in shock.

"Uh, I was gonna make you a sandwich, but I found this stuff, and thought it would be fun make myself look like a mummy and scare you when you woke up. But it was see through, and I couldn't get it to come off." He explained, looking up at her with an expression of a child that got his hand caught in a cookie jar.

"Whad am I gonna do wid you?" she asked, pressing her hand against her forehead and she walked towards the counter, grabbed the pair of scissors that she had finally remembered to buy, and walked back towards him. He was completely cocooned in the plastic paper, looking like a ridiculous burrito or something. She pushed his head to the side, making sure that she bent his neck at an uncomfortable angle and started to cut downward. She removed layer after layer until he was able to break free of the confines, and sat back against the wall, watching with amusement as he flailed his arms around to get the pieces that were clinging to him because of static electricity.

He eventually just got sick of it and decided burning it was the best way to go about the situation, making Lucy cringe when it immediately disintegrated within seconds. If she could actually _smell _anything, she was sure that she'd have the desire to bleach her nostrils from the horrid scent of burnt plastic.

"Now, where's dat sandwich you made?" she asked after he seemed satisfied with his work, crossing his legs and sat facing her. When he processed her words, his eyes seemed to go blank as his lips tightened; showing her that he was more than reluctant to say what was to come.

"Gajeel ate it." …

Lucy stared at him with a blank expression while he waited to see her reaction with a jittery air around him. After a few seconds of heavy silence, she sighed out a breathy laugh before leaning her head back against the wall.

"Whadever, I'm nod really dat hungry anyway." She mumbled before scooting to sit up, resisting the temptation to just fall over and stay there. Her fever was back, and it was hitting full force now that the adrenaline that had been pumping through her veins calmed down. Leaning a hand against the wall, she stumbled her way back into her bedroom. Deciding it would be a good idea to go and wash her face while she was already up; she took an immediate left and entered into her bathroom, flicking the light on subconsciously as she passed. Slapping her palms down on the sleek counter of her sink, she flicked the water on with a flip of her wrist and cupped her hands underneath the stream.

The cold liquid running over her burning skin felt amazing and did it another two times before standing up as straight as she could and groped around until she felt her towel. Rubbing the puffy fabric across her face and over her soaked bangs, she sighed and looked up in the mirror. Her skin was growing more and more red, her eyes glazed over even though her mind still felt relatively clear other than the lightheadedness. And then she saw it … what Natsu had been hiding with his scarf. Well, the edge of it anyway.

Far back on the juncture of where her neck and shoulder met, she could make out a red and purple mark, but she couldn't twist herself enough to see just how big it was. All she knew, is that there was a mark on her neck, and she instantly remembers the picture of where she had been flailing in Natsu's arms while he was doing _something _to her neck.

She ignored the head rush she got when she immediately whipped around to face the door to the bathroom, only to see Natsu peeking in with a nervous jitter.

"You said you wouldn't get angry if I took off the scarf!" he said, pointing at her from around the wall before pulling the limb back for safe keeping.

"But you never said that you _gave me a __**hickey!" **_she screeched, whipping back around to face the mirror and run her fingers over the mark. It didn't hurt nor was it sore. She didn't remember feeling any of the small stings she had read about when you get a kiss mark, but it could have been when all her body was aching after waking up hung-over. But, why didn't Wendy's magic pills heal it? "Okay, EXPLAIN! RIGHT NOW! Or else I will _really _get angry!" she said stiffly through her teeth, trying not to yell and keep her promise, but it was growing very hard.

"Okay, okay, I don't remember everything, but I do remember that the fire that had been on your fingers was really good, and I figured it was because of your skin—so, I think I might have lit your skin on fire and tried to eat it off you just to test if it was right—BUT I WAS DRUNK AND YOU CAN'T BLAME ME!" he said hurriedly, growing increasingly nervous as he kept his eyes on her. She was steaming out of the ears, and not because of her fever.

"How much did you drink to think I'd be okay with you _lighting me on fire, __**again?!" **_

"Gray said I was a pussy 'cause I couldn't drink as much as him and I lost count after twenty three, but you have no say in this! You were so drunk you tried to seduce Yukino thinking she was some prince dude, or whatever!" he said accusingly, finally stepping into the door, but kept his distance.

"Jason would have eaten that kind of stuff up! He would have taken more pictures of that than of you guys _throwing me in a river!" _

"Okay, so that was a lie! Still! You can't blame me and I already said I was sorry! You passed out right after I did it, so we thought you were dead! You didn't have a pulse!" he said, and Lucy duly noted the slight fear that flashed through his eyes at his own words. Biting her tongue with the bitter response she had ready to spit out at him, she just sighed out in annoyance and shook her head.

"Whatever, it's in the past. It'll go away in a few days, so I'll just have to keep hiding it until then." She said, splashing a little more water on her face before turning around and stumbling towards the door. "Just promise you won't try and eat fire off me again." She said lightheartedly, not in the mood to argue anymore. At least all the yelling seemed to have cleared her nasally voice. That's one upside to the completely pointless argument that had wasted time that could have been used for sleep and recovering.

Natsu merely laughed wholeheartedly at her comment and threw an arm over her shoulders when she walked past him. He wasn't leaning on her, however, he was holding _her _up. It was the small support off of her weak legs that helped her get back to her bed and crawl under the covers. She was sweltering already and she hadn't been under them for more than three seconds.

"Could you take away my fever again?" she asked, looking up at him with hopeful brown eyes.

At her words, his expression dropped into an apologetic one.

"Sorry, but no. If I do that too often, the fever will just come back even worse than when I took it away." He explained with a serious expression, staring at her wall. "Happy had a really bad fever once, and that's when I came up with the idea. But when I kept doing it, it got so bad that we had to drop him into a tub of ice water to cool him off. He was too hot for anyone other than me to touch."

Lucy's eyes widened at his tale, scooting up a bit to look him in the face.

"When did _that _happen?" she asked incredulously.

"Uh … about a year before we found you? I don't really remember." He said with a nonchalant shrug, scratching behind his neck.

"Hmm … oh well, it's better that I sweat the fever out anyway." She said, shifting back under the blankets. She hated the uncomfortable heat that the layers applied to her already overheating body, but she knew it was for the better good. "Try not to make too much trouble for me when I wake up." She said with a smile, closing her eyes and rolling into a ball.

He laughed again, but agreed after thinking it over.

And it was then that Lucy realized something … he never agreed to never eating fire off her again.

**That's generally the end of it. It will continue on just a little bit into Plan D, but not too much! I hope you enjoyed it! **

"Poor Lucy. The dear looked absolutely miserable." Mira said, frowning at the counter top before lifting her gaze to the red haired warrior that was walking up to the small group at the counter. "Thank you for bringing Lucy home, Erza. I would have had Natsu do it, but no one knows where he, Gajeel and Gray ran off to."

"It's not a problem, Mira. She should be fine by herself for an hour, but someone should be with her just in case."

"Well it seems like we're going to have to hold out on Plan C until Lucy can get better." Lisanna said, taking a sip of her drink as she looked over the expressions of her friends. Cana didn't really seem to be paying attention to them as she chugged from her barrel, but she knew better than to trust outward appearances. The card mage was probably listening far more intently than she looks.

"Oohhh, but it was such a good plan! It would have gotten the two of them together for sure!" Evergreen whined, flicking a lock of brown hair over her shoulder.

"You only think that 'cause it was your idea."

"Plan Candy Store would have been a hit! Tell them to test out the Pocky sticks to make sure they taste okay, and _mwah, _together in an instant."

"But there were flaws in that plan to begin with. If we told them to test it, they could have just eaten a stick each by themselves. They didn't have to actually do the challenge. Not to mention we can't risk Natsu getting hyped up on sugar and burning down the only sweets store that Magnolia has." Mira said, ticking off the flaws on her hand. The plan hadn't really been thought through, but no one else had any other ideas for plan C. But Lucy becoming sick gave them more time to think up another plan, also giving them … _other _opportunities. "Well, we could use Lucy's condition to an advantage."

"Huh?" Levy asked, lifting her head from the book she had been reading at the barmaid's words. "How? Lu-chan's in no condition to even move, how does that help?"

"Dun ya see, kiddo?" Cana cut in with a sly smile. "We send the idiot ta take care a'her."

"Exactly, Cana. It might not bring them together instantly, like we hope, but it could definitely help build up their relationship."

"So what do we call this one then? I still think Candy Store is better. There's not going to be any results from this one."

"How about … Caretaker?" Levy offered hesitantly, usually the one that came up with the words since her vocabulary was a little more vast than the common mind.

"Caretaker." Everyone hummed in agreement.

**And that's how Plan C came to be. Do you guys like the idea? Or would you rather I tell you what the actual name is at the beginning? Let me know!**


End file.
